European Team Championship November 2023

[Mark Howitt]

WIll quickly add this as well...

I mean guys... like I said I'm fine with all this chat but...

I totally get why some people JUST want to play online...

I am a better player online than I am OTB.

On YouTube now you see all these vids HOW I WENT FROM NOOB TO 1900 in just 2 years.....

This is the future guys...

If I was like paid for it I'd be like an alright online player... like if chess was like football and treated as such I'd prob be/have been a Champ or league one player over my career...

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Not sure if it can be calculated, but am I right to say that for England to finish one of the joint leaders after round 9, that as well as beating Armenia, they need Serbia and Germany to lose to Greece and Croatia respectively, and that the tie-break calculations are actually possible in this scenario where 5 teams tie for first place?

Can someone confirm "Olympiad-Sonneborn-Berger-Tie-Break without lowest result (Chennai)" as the actual second tie-break in use (after match points), and how to calculate it? I am assuming that Greece and Croatia both beating their opponents (admittedly not that likely) would see big swings in the tie-breaks, but not enough? Might England sneak into first in that scenario?

The more likely scenario is that England win or draw to get a safe third place? (Losing gets nothing.) Almost exactly the same considerations apply to Armenia, except that a draw is not good enough for them (I don't think).

Or is this one of those cases where the tie-break depends on the results in matches lower down?

Might all be moot if England cannot put out their strongest team. Hope all the players are OK and recovered or recovering from whatever has affected them.

BTW, massive chance for Serbia to win the gold medals, but so close between them and Germany.

[Ben Purton]

Mark, You don't know what you are talking about. After a tough loss, Ravi would not need people on the forum jumping on him. I am the captain of many of the players who just missed out on the team but Ravi is a great player, we are playing on board 1.

As someone who is actually an experienced captain, please keep your comments to yourself, it adds no value to the team. We should be supporting them and they can still medal which is amazing.

[Mick Norris]

Not sure if it can be calculated, but am I right to say that for England to finish one of the joint leaders after round 9, that as well as beating Armenia, they need Serbia and Germany to lose to Greece and Croatia respectively, and that the tie-break calculations are actually possible in this scenario where 5 teams tie for first place?

Can someone confirm "Olympiad-Sonneborn-Berger-Tie-Break without lowest result (Chennai)" as the actual second tie-break in use (after match points), and how to calculate it? I am assuming that Greece and Croatia both beating their opponents (admittedly not that likely) would see big swings in the tie-breaks, but not enough? Might England sneak into first in that scenario?

The more likely scenario is that England win or draw to get a safe third place? (Losing gets nothing.) Almost exactly the same considerations apply to Armenia, except that a draw is not good enough for them (I don't think).

Or is this one of those cases where the tie-break depends on the results in matches lower down?

Might all be moot if England cannot put out their strongest team. Hope all the players are OK and recovered or recovering from whatever has affected them.

BTW, massive chance for Serbia to win the gold medals, but so close between them and Germany.

I suspect the answer is we can't be sure

It feels likely that if the match is drawn, we finish ahead of Armenia and anyone else winning from a lower score group, and thus get a medal

Good luck to the teams tomorrow

[Ben Purton]

Good luck to all the teams tomorrow. Also worth noting the Sharks were very very sick in Albania. 2 of our team are not 100% 6 weeks later. Playing when that unwell is horrid.

When i had a sub(first 5 rounds) i played them. We defaulted 3 boards over the week as we were too unwell

[KMcCarthy]

Unless you experienced the special Albania sickness you have no idea....we had 2 on drips early in the week and at least 2 sick on each of the last 5 rounds ..I was in bed on zero food and just water for 36 hours and only crawled to board in round 6 to allow my junior opponent a chance at medalling as a default win would have cost him the chance, although I could not even notate the game clearly as so dizzy - tried to do play 7 but got turned away by chief arbiter which was a blessing in disguise...sure Mark could have stepped in aas he didn't allow himself a day off while writing a book

[Jonathan Rogers]

We would surely deserve a medal just by drawing with Armenia; I say this not only because of the likely effects of sickness on our team, but also because, most unusually for us, we actually have played the top performing teams. All of them, every team playing on the top three boards in the last round...

[Ben Purton]

Would be nice to see this whole thread wish the whole team well today. To quote a commentator.. lets back the boys and make some noise..and of course good luck to England women...i think one is on for a norm?

[LawrenceCooper]

Would be nice to see this whole thread wish the whole team well today. To quote a commentator.. lets back the boys and make some noise..and of course good luck to England women...i think one is on for a norm?

Lan Yao? Another good performance to back up her medal at the ECC. She may well add another WGM norm to her collection (her 5th?) with a draw and a win may be an IM norm.

[LawrenceCooper]

Bo. 13 England Rtg - 24 Sweden Rtg 0 : 0
8.1 WIM Yao, Lan 2344 - GM Cramling, Pia 2440
8.2 IM Hunt, Harriet V 2315 - WIM Frisk, Ellinor 2161
8.3 WGM Toma, Katarzyna 2193 - WFM Cramling Bellon, Anna 2085
8.4 FM Kalaiyalahan, Akshaya 2176 - Ostensson, Julia 1900

Bo. 4 England Rtg - 5 Armenia Rtg 0 : 0
5.1 GM Vitiugov, Nikita 2712 - GM Martirosyan, Haik M. 2708
5.2 GM Howell, David W L 2676 - GM Sargissian, Gabriel 2686
5.3 GM Adams, Michael 2670 - GM Sargsyan, Shant 2625
5.4 GM Mcshane, Luke J 2626 - GM Ter-Sahakyan, Samvel 2618

[Mick Norris]

Good to see Luke back

Good luck to all the players

[LawrenceCooper]

Board prize standings: https://chess-results.com/tnr832215.asp ... ES&flag=30 & https://chess-results.com/tnr832216.asp ... ES&flag=30

[Mick Norris]

Nikita 6th, Magnus 1st and not playing today

Mickey 5th, but Bluebaum in 4th not playing, so possibly a chance to overtake him at least

Good chance for a medal for Luke

Lan Yao has a chance too

[Carl Hibbard]

WIll quickly add this as well...

I mean guys... like I said I'm fine with all this chat but...

I totally get why some people JUST want to play online...

I am a better player online than I am OTB.

On YouTube now you see all these vids HOW I WENT FROM NOOB TO 1900 in just 2 years.....

This is the future guys...

If I was like paid for it I'd be like an alright online player... like if chess was like football and treated as such I'd prob be/have been a Champ or league one player over my career...

Mark Howitt has been removed from the forum after continuing to ignore my guidance on postings.

[Simon Myles]

Back to reality and the actual chess, all 4 boards are finely balanced. Natasha & Peter Wells are doing commentary on twitch in a few minutes at 5pm.